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April 28, 2014

That’s the first and
last time I’m going to properly type the name of the franchise.

Recent news has
revealed that, as of this post, Sony’s new kid on the block the
PS4 has surpassed seven million sales.
Seven million consoles are out there, not just on the shelves, but in
the hands of customers all around. That
is a lot of consoles -- given that roughly a month ago that number was at six
million, it’s likely that those numbers are going to rise at an incredible rate
yet again. After all, the prevalent
theory is that the recent surge is because of Infamous: Second Son.

But with that in mind,
I have to ask a question: what? Or if not that, then…why?

I’m not going to tell
anyone that they’re wrong for their opinions, or their purchases by
extension. But I hope you’ll forgive me
for being more than a little confused.
The PS4 does NOT have the library right now to justify its
purchase. It just doesn’t. Okay, sure, it’s got some solid indie games
out there, but those aren’t enough. The
selling point should be in the big releases -- and those have yet to cut
it. Knack
isn’t doing it. Killzone: Shadow Fall isn’t doing it. Battlefield
4, Assassin’s Creed 4, and Tomb
Raider: Definitive Edition aren’t doing it -- not to mention that they’re
multiplatform titles, and far from revolutionary in their own right. I can understand the “early adopter”
mentality, but right now the only reason why people might be running out to buy
the latest console is because of a barrage of commercials…some of which don’t
even show any gameplay. Or games.

So. If you want to know what I think of Second Son without suffering through
thousands of words, there you go. Things
aren’t exactly ideal.

SPOILERS!
UNLIMITED SPOILERS! Ahhhhhhhh…

I would have gone with the lyrics for “Ride the
Lightning”, but Palpatine beckoned.

April 24, 2014

If you’ve been checking
around the blog recently, you might have guessed that I’ve got Infamous: Second Son on the brain. (The posts on which will come this Monday and
Thursday, so look forward to my joy/despair.)
And with good reason; I may not be one for comics, but I’ve always loved
the idea of superheroes. And by
extension, I’ve always loved the potential that they hold. Powers beyond the mortal man! A persona that’s larger than life! HnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngCOSTUMES! There’s a lot to love, so there’s an obvious
reason why they’re so popular today.

But if The Avengers -- and the internet at large
-- is any indication, it’s that people love villains as well. Maybe more.
Tom Hiddleston’s Loki made a huge splash in the first Thor movie, much
to its (and his) credit; his presence helped make that movie what it was, and
you could say the same pretty damn easily about The Dark World. Loki’s
popular, but I’d bet that he’s not the only one who’s enjoyed his fair share of
popularity. Nor will he be the last.

And I find that more
than a little interesting, if we’re being honest. Along with Loki’s horns. That seems like an accident waiting to happen
-- if it hasn’t already. On the other hand, they ARE curved upward, so, you know. S'all good.

April 21, 2014

Sometimes I wonder if my
head’s screwed on straight -- and then I remember that it isn’t, so I start
thinking about other stuff.

I may be opinionated to
a fault, but I’d like to think that I can be respectful of the opinions of
others; I don’t think there’s been a point where I’ve said “You’re wrong!” And I hope it never gets to that point,
implied or not. That said, I can still
disagree -- and STRONGLY -- with the opinions of others. Or if not that, then I’ll make my confusion
pretty well known. At least, I hope I
have. If I haven’t, then I’ll go ahead
and do that now.

I just don’t understand
why people consider Captain America boring or lame. And not just Cap, either; Superman, and
Cyclops, and pretty much anyone who qualifies as being a
“cape”. Okay, those characters
aren’t automatically perfect or amazing, and they can go off the rails. Fair enough.
But rejecting them just because they’re good guys? That doesn’t sit right with me. It’s like the detractors are saying “Man, you
know what I hate? Heroism, nobility, and
common decency! Screw all that noise!” Heroes and anti-heroes have their place, and
their uses; they can offer up something that can make a story great, independent
of their ability to kick ass. Batman is
not the famous character he is because he punches dudes or “can do anything as
long as he has time to prepare first”.
He’s a famous character because of his character.

The particulars might
be different, but that same general concept applies to Captain America. And by extension, it applies to every main
character in this movie…because of
Captain America.

April 17, 2014

So can we all
collectively agree to stop asking where the other Marvel superheroes are in
solo movies?

I know I brought this
up in light of Iron Man 3, but I
think it bears repeating. There seems to
be this constant complaint that “Captain America isn’t in this movie!” or
people asking “Where’s Thor? He should be
here fighting the bad guys, too!” Okay,
that’s kind of a legitimate complaint, but it shouldn’t matter in the long
run. The solo outings are solo for a
reason. If you put every Avenger in
every movie, then the inevitable crossover battle is just going to end up being
less special. More to the point, the
solo movies put the focus back on the individual superheroes, and develop them
so that they don’t get diluted in the crossover. That was pretty much the entire point of the
“Phase One” movies, so why would that change with Phase Two? And that’s all setting aside the real-world,
out-of-universe issues; actors need to be paid, stories need to be written,
schedules for shooting need to be set up…the list goes on.

Personally, I think we
should just be thankful we even have superhero
movies, let alone such high quality ones on a regular basis. By now I’d assume that the world knows
how badthose
movies can get, so it’s good to know that in most cases, we can trust the
bigwigs and background-toilers to make a product that entertains us. A movie we can count on. A hero we’ll gladly follow to hell and back.

I sure hope it doesn’t
come to that. Hell doesn’t strike me as
a pleasant place -- but either way, betting on Cap is probably the best move
you could ever make.

When Captain America throws his mighty SPOILERS

All those who chose to oppose his SPOILERS
must…uh…BOILERS? Aw, screw it. There are spoilers incoming, so watch your
back. Also, did anyone get a solid count
on the number of Charging Stars in the movie?
It’s at least eight, I bet.

April 11, 2014

Now, in a move that
will surprise absolutely no one who’s read this blog for more than eight
minutes, I have to make an assertion: the “gritty story” model might be
broken. I say MIGHT because there’s always the chance that a movie, or a game, or
whatever will come my way that makes me eat my words. If that day is coming, then in light of The Walking Dead, I can tell you right
now that said day is pretty far off.

USGamer’s Jeremy Parish
-- whose words you should be reading when you’re not reading mine -- took a
look at Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes
and raised
a legitimate complaint about one of its issues (independent of it being a $40$30 demo). Apparently, GZ takes a dip into some seriously seedy territory, and it takes
the franchise -- a goofy-as-hell franchise, more often than not -- to a very
dark place, and a place that The Phantom
Pain might not be prepared to tackle.
Or illuminate, or explore. It
remains to be seen how events will be handled, but Parish makes his point while
pointing to some of the problems gritty fare runs into: sometimes they’re not
prepared to go into those depths, but do it anyway because…well, that’s just a
thing you do with a gritty story. Go
dark or go home.

And trust me; there are
times when I wish some stories would just go home. As you can guess.

Make your first move, so what’s it gonna be?

You’re trapped in the new world of SPOILER
Fighter III!

Fight for the future, so what’s it gonna be?

The 3rd Strike, y’all, it’s SPOILER
Fighter III!

Side note: did anyone notice that I called Andrea "Angela" at first? Did anyone think to themselves that it only slightly matters?

April 9, 2014

Well, you could argue
that professional wrestling in its entirety is brilliant -- which I’ll do
before post’s end, probably -- but I thought I could use a snappier title. Anyway, Ryan and Rory, if you’re reading this,
I hope you enjoy; this post is for you.
Also? Digeridoos covered in
cranberry sauce. Think about it. I sure didn’t.

Now, for anyone else
reading this, let me be the first to make a confession: I hold pro wrestling in
pretty high esteem. Though technically,
I guess I’m closer to being a poser than an actual fan; my fondest memories of
the sport come from memories of playing wrestling games, dishing out power
bombs, reversing enemy grapples, and breaking the legs of whoever my brother
would try to win with (poor virtual Rey Mysterio…). Beyond that, I’ve always thought that the
grapplers in fighting games were the coolest, even if they weren’t exactly the
most practical. Hearing Haggar shout
“PILE DRIVER!” made every beating in Marvel
vs. Capcom 3 worth it. Well, almost.

For lack of a better
term, for years I’ve seen wrestling as something romantic. Something that, by nature, is designed to get
the blood pumping and the crowd roaring.
Thinking back, I used to tune in to SmackDown consistently before it
fell off the basic cable/easily-accessed channels -- a real loss, but one I
eventually got over.

But having seen
WrestleMania XXX, I’m starting to think that letting the WWE get away from me
was a big mistake. Maybe one that I need
to fix.

Warning: spoilers for anyone who hasn’t seen
the event yet, so readers beware. Though
on that note, how nuts is it that I have to use spoilers for something like
wrestling?

Side note: am I the only one who’s compelled to
call it WrestleMania Xrd thanks to the presence of three Xs and the latest Guilty Gear? Well, probably. But I’ll use any excuse to work an Ishiwatari
song into the mix.

April 7, 2014

I’m about ready to
declare that (outside of some currently-unseen yet supposedly-amazing first
season) the show is the best it’s ever been.
There’s no wallowing in despair and having go-nowhere arguments on a
farm; there’s actually a goal now, and the cast -- and the show -- has proven
as of Season 4’s finale that they’re moving toward something. These characters are actually trying to be characters instead of by-proxy
survivalists and badass zombie slayers…well, as badass as you can be when your
main opponent day after day is less threatening than an incensed sloth. And as if my thoughts in my Attack on Titan posts changed the fabric
of reality, the show is trying -- trying,
if nothing else -- to inject some hope into affairs.

So don’t let anyone
tell you that I can’t be positive about things out of my comfort zone (even
though I hope I’ve proved that by now).
If there’s something I like, then I’ll bring it up. If there’s something I don’t like, I’ll bring that up, too. Let it be known that I can give praise to The Walking Dead as needed.

Let it ALSO be known
that, were the show a living, breathing person, I would slap it across the
face. Multiple times.

You are now entering The Spoiler Zone…though
that should be obvious, I hope. Then
again, this is coming more than a week after the Season 4 finale, so I’d hope
that by now you’ve had time to digest. I
sure have.

Side note: I sure hope this doesn’t date the
post months down the line when people find this blog looking for anime boobs or
The Last of Us porn. And on that note…seriously, internet? Seriously?

April 3, 2014

Am I the only one that
thinks that the typing of the title is really awkward? I am?
Well, forget it, then. I’ll just
keep typing “Infamous” instead.

A quick glance at
Wikipedia tells me that the original Infamous
was released in 2009, and its sequel followed in 2011. Since then, the franchise has pretty much
established itself as one of Sony’s key products -- the “reason” to own a PS3,
and more recently a PS4 considering how Second
Son was revealed alongside it. (Though
its reveal was pretty much a given by that point, I’d wager.) Collectively, is Infamous the best in the superhero game business? No.
And not even individually; that honor belongs to 2005’s The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction,
seeing as how it nigh-flawlessly captured the essence of playing as the
Hulk. Still, some props have to go to Spider-Man 2 for nailing the web-swinging; why the games that followed had to
complicate the formula -- or forget it outright -- is beyond me.

But for what it’s
worth, I’m ready to acknowledge Infamous as
something praise-worthy. I like the
concept. I like superheroes, and
superpowers. I like that it at least tries to do something with morality, and
gives the player the choice of playing as the hero instead of a growling,
amoral twit (or worse, the ever-so-delightful designated hero). But as always, the execution is what proves
or disproves the soundness of the concept.
If it’s not done well, there’s a good chance I could find myself wishing
that it wasn’t done well at all.
Thankfully, the latest entry in the franchise gives a chance to iron out
the flaws. This is the game that proves
the worth of the PS4, and ushers in the promise of the new generation…at least
to those that pretend the Wii U doesn’t count.